Evasion
by The Dark Enchantress Ruhi
Summary: Four times Vicky managed to evade Rumi's family and one time he didn't. Written for the movie "Manmarziyan" starring Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal and Abhishek Bachchan. Part 1 of the Kehne Ko Jashn-e-Bahara Hai Series.


Four times Vicky was able to escape Rumi's family and one time he wasn't.

I.

The first time was when they had just started seeing each other. She'd been able to sneak him in through the front door early in the morning without waking anyone, which was an accomplishment in itself considering her Chachi was a light sleeper.

They hadn't wasted time in getting down to business as soon as they had gotten to the terrace, managing somehow to clamber onto Daji's ancient cot amidst their fervent kisses. They almost didn't hear it above Rumi's giggles—The clang of brass against brass. They had jumped apart as though electrocuted, looking towards the general direction of the stairs from which they could hear Chachi muttering about spilled water.

A second later both of them jumped into action, looking for discarded clothes and haphazardly putting them on. Rumi was staring anxiously towards the stairs again–there was no way she'd be able to sneak him out if chachi was awake. They could hear her coming up towards them now. It was in that moment precisely that Vicky began appreciating just how close the buildings in Amritsar were.

Within a blink of an eye he had taken off towards their water tank and was jumping towards their neighbouring building as Rumi stared with wide eyes, certain he was going to fall to his death. Miraculously, he didn't. And miraculously, Chachi chose that moment to appear on the scene. Rumi's eyes were still wide, and her hair was mussed, and she was going to have to answer a few questions, but she just hoped Vicky had had sense enough to not leave any marks, because otherwise, it had been a narrow escape and they'd both surfaced unhurt.

II.

The second time was when Chachiji, Chachaji and Kiran were all going to the other end of Amritsar to visit Chachiji's brother. The only occupants of the house that night were to be Daji, who went into a deep sleep easily enough, and Rumi herself.

This time, they were caught. By Kiran. Their car had broken down halfway and it had gotten late, so they had decided to come back home tired and unmotivated, and it was in that tired and unmotivated state that Kiran had found Vicky and Rumi in varying states of undress, and if she hadn't been so tired and shocked and embarrassed, she probably would've screamed. Instead, she just left the room very quickly.

The two could only stare at the halfway ajar door for the longest moment. Then Vicky got off Rumi with lightning speed, and started pulling on his clothes and passing Rumi hers. That night, Vicky realized that the distance between Rumi's balcony and the other house was very jumpable.

Until after Kiran came back in, on the prodding of her mother, Rumi was wondering if this was it. She'd probably be married off to some idiot now. It was a life well lived, though.

Kiran only stared at Rumi for the longest time before Rumi asked her the question that had been bothering her for all this while.

"Did you tell Chachi anything?"

That night, Rumi gained a negative reply, and an allie.

III.

The third time round was better, if something like that could ever be, because Rumi and Vicky were both very much dressed this time and doing things that could be considered innocent. After all, to any onlooker, walking together through a field would be considered quite platonic, even if Rumi's hair was wilder than usual and both of their clothes looked as if they'd been rolling in a stack of hay.

To be fair, it really wasn't Rumi's idea to stray from their routine but she had to agree it did take suspicion off of her bedroom. Needless to say she was more than a little surprised when Chachiji confronted her about it. Rumi's bewilderment at her statement was genuine—mostly because she was wondering why on Earth Chachiji had decided to go towards the fields anyway when she was allergic to the smell of hay—and that was probably why Chachiji had readily believed her intelligent reply of,

"What?"

"Nothing, it was just the next door neighbour spreading rumors again."

Chachiji then turned to attend to her dal on the stove, and was hence unable to hear Rumi heave a sigh of relief and mutter under her breath how Mr. Next door needed to get a job.

IV.

They should admittedly have been more careful by the fourth time round, because by then gossip had really begun, and it was starting to trickle into Rumi's household too. She was mostly successful in shutting people up by glaring daggers at them—which she was admittedly pretty good at—but unfortunately she wasn't always around to see who was badmouthing her. So by the fourth time round, she had already had a very uncomfortable conversation with Chachiji, in which she had earnestly denied any interest in boys, let alone boys with electric blue highlights who claimed to be DJs.

Rumi wasn't a great liar—or even a particularly okay one—but Kiran was even worse, and so she wondered for a while if it was her own interrogation or her sister's that had given away the fact that something fishy went on in her bedroom during the early hours of the morning. Maybe if she were better at people-reading she would've realized that Chachi wasn't really convinced at all, and would've foreseen her wanting to get in her bedroom the next morning. Her banging on the door had taken Rumi by surprise, and it had taken her a minute to realize what was going on. The next part had become a ritual, unfortunately, of putting on clothes at lightning speed and of wiping away sweat and thinking up good excuses for whatever situation they were in, and Vicky was out of her threshold in record time.

Chachiji was decidedly unconvinced when Rumi told her that she had been practicing her dance, and Rumi and Kiran both looked on with bated breath as Chachiji peered inside the room suspiciously. She relented finally, and went downstairs after giving Rumi a curious look as both sisters stared at her retreating figure silently, not looking at each other.

"You need to find a better place," said Kiran after a full minute, and went back to the book she was reading. Rumi grimaced.

V.

The fifth time was also the first time they were caught. Rumi wasn't expecting it, because this was an entire month after the last time, and there really hadn't been any mention of whatever talk the birds were carrying these days. Rumi had taken Kiran's advice and their most recent escapades hadn't taken place in her bedroom, so she should really have been in the clear this time round, even if Daji was sitting right outside.

The banging on the door had shaken them both out of their reverie, and thrown Rumi into a state of panic because this was the one time she had been mostly certain they were okay. Vicky, however, jumped off the bed and began to look for his discarded T-Shirt within a moment and put it on as quickly as he could while the noise outside increased.

Rumi could vaguely hear Kiran exclaiming,"but what are you going to do?"

and Daji calling to her from over her Chachi's count of "1… 2… 3!" just as Vicky was about to jump off.

She hadn't thought they would actually break into her room, and neither had Vicky, who was now in Chachi's clutches. She looked briefly at the group assembled in her bedroom, and looked down abashedly when she saw the disappointment in Daji's eyes.

"Put your shirt on straight," he said, looking away from her and Rumi looked down on her own kurti, which was worn the way it was supposed to be, and then at Vicky, who had apparently put on his T-Shirt inside-out in his haste. She gnawed at her lip as the radio chose that exact moment to play an advert for a matrimonial service. She looked up again as Vicky went,

"Uh… I'll get going now,"

and made for the balcony instead of the door—at which Daji called him out again—and saw Chachaji standing outside looking confused. Rumi sighed. Perfect. Just perfect.

~Finite~


End file.
